mainpeak online orders experience

[wayno]

anyone experienced problems with mainpeak?
i made an order to be delivered to me in nz.... ten days i am told.
ten days after i made the order i finally get a notice from auspost with a tracking no.. saying it had just been picked up.....
i check with mainpeak and they say well they missed out information on the package and auspost boomeranged it to them but that took a week and a half so they have reposted it.
they didnt put any higher pririty on the package when they reposted it.
I would have expected since it was their mistake that they pay for a higher urgency on the parcel and i would have expected them to inform me of the error rather than have to work out what was going on for myself and find i'm waiting several weeks for the package.
needless to say in the leadup to christmas i'll be surprised if i see it turn up soon. it will be touch and go if i get it before i leave on holiday, i dont leave till just before new years.
and it went on sale after i bought it as well.....
i"m paying $40 for postage and that give ten day delivery service but i can get an item that size from the states in five days for that price...

[Hallu]

I've never had any major problem with mainpeak, only once an item wasn't in stock which made the order under the free shipping threshold but of course they still offered shipping. I think once there was an order that was taking quite long and I had to ask what was going on (item on backorder or something) but that's. This kind of shipping label error happens with every online store, I had the same with MacPac a couple of weeks ago.

[wayno]

fair enough about the error but with the delay caused by them i'd have thought speeding up the shipping as a courtesy. as it is, I"m surprised it takes so much longer to ship an item from aus than from the states for the same price

[photohiker]

I'm not.

It's patchy, but I have regularly received stuff from overseas before other stuff ordered in Aus at the same time.

Some local businesses just don't get that they are in competition with a global market. Some of these dinosaurs even apply pressure to Government in an attempt to solve their problem rather than sorting out their pricing and customer service.

No purchase experience with Mainpeak though. (they didn't answer my emails, so we never got to first base)

[wayno]

yeah they stopped answering mine, i've never had an issue with anything from the states from several companies... i dont need to get the priority couriers to get my stuff in good time.. its a a reasonably well oiled machine from the states from my experience, it seems they are possibly far more geared up for dealing online, no questions asked returns weeks or months later.... its all part of the process.... i took it for granted i'd get something similar from an aus oonline store and mail system..
for $40 i can get regular tracking updates from the states with my mail fee.
with this order that has told me when it was dispatched and when it will be delivered , they told me full tracking would be too expensive....
at this rate it's been a learning exercise , i'll order from the states as preference in the future..
i've had an issue with another couple of companie in aus too ordering gear listed online that turned out to be out of stock, hten i'd wait while they checked with their suppliers and just got nowhere... in the states i've found if its been listed in stock then it has been in stock when i've ordered it and it gets shipped within a day...

[wayno]

OK update. I pointed out to mainpeak how their real shipping date was after the sale started so they are offering to refund me the difference to give me the sale price or a full refund if i send the jacket back, but i did have to complain to them twice before this happened. still they did give me more than one option which i am happy about.... i'm just hoping i get the jacket before my trip , not the end of the world if i dont but i never expected such long delivery times.... and that issue is more to do with aus post, doesnt help that nzpost at this time of year can be a dead loss too.... couriers would have been far to expensive to bother with, again would have been better ordered from the states, and companies down under wonder why they are missing out sales to overseas.......

[wayno]

hmm aus post says ten days for delivery and up to another five days with customs delays...
it got into nz in five days, normally i'll get an item the following day once its in the country , and normally customs just make a quick phone call to me if they need to charge me anything and there isnt much holdup...
i suppose ten days is something they put on all international deliveries since aus won't have a clue how long delivery will take to the whops in another country....
but it is xmas so i'm not holding my breath on getting the package by tomorrow

[Rob A]

It not an essential bit of kit is it. Otherwise you would have bought it locally after trying it on, and paid what it was worth well before your trip so you knew it worked.
And now its thirty percent to half price so that cant be all bad.
Couriers round here are so overstretched, a month ago many end delivery drivers were getting to fourteen hours on the road and getting return to base instructions.
Ive no idea what it would be like in the post. Doubt its beer and skittles.

The goggle god says "Mainpeak is a WA based, family-owned and operated retailer of..." Im tipping they are a smaller outfit doing what they can to give people skinny prices, and probably have other irons in the fire.

[wayno]

i cant get it locally hence getting it from aus.... its a rain jacket. i've got backup kit but definitely good to have it for a new years trip. if i could have got it locally , i'd probably have paid whatever for it to ensure i had it for my trip... only recently decided i needed a better fitting hood, i wanted a light event jacket with good venting and reinforcing in high wear areas, high neck, spacious hood. something with rave reviews and had to go overseas to get it.. wouldnt have been so tight for time if it hadnt taken ten days for aus post to reject it... and i wasnt told or given options when it was rejected

[Bluegum Mic]

Such a shame youve had a bad run with them. Ive bought a few things with them over the years and was always amazed that it was delivered the next day (Perth to Sydney...and in under 24 hrs from purchase time). Fingers crossed you get your jacket in time for your trip. Its amazing how pear shaped Australia post gets this time of year.

[Rob A]

Well you can often pick up stuff like Montane jackets out of ireland.
Their record is freedeliver, four days from Ireland to the door in out of city NSW. Worth keeping an eye out to see if they carry what you want

[wayno]

yeah partly just bad luck but when it goes wrong, one of the first rules in customer relations is be quick to offer the customer alternate choice, they did that, woud have been a bit better earlier on, not the end of the world, just that bit of angst if i dont get my kit in time.

[Strider]

Good experience here. I gave them incorrect credit card details, they rang me to check it and item was then posted that day. Couldn't have been happier.

[north-north-west]

I've only used them two or three times, but they've been quick and reliable so far. Good value.

[ULWalkingPhil]

paid what it was worth well before your trip.

You must be kidding. Do you think the extortionist prices they charge here is what there worth?

I've purchased from Mainpeak a few times now, and never had any issues, and they have great sales at times, often cheaper than overseas prices. They been good to deal with.

[Rob A]

Well hes in Kiwi, but never mind.
Which particular prices in Aus are extortionate?

[ULWalkingPhil]

Well hes in Kiwi, but never mind.
Which particular prices in Aus are extortionate?

Most are, unless you purchase during the sales. Personally I find the prices here in Australia are to high for what you get, at least for me. I could never afford to get into quality gear with the Australia RRP prices. So I always look for specials and overseas. Most of the gear I've purchased overseas are not made or available here in Australia. I would think probably 80% of my current hiking gear I use now, are not available here in Australia. I'm not on a big wage. I have to shop around.

I let someone else serve those with there big huge home overlooking the harbour with there flash cars in the garage and there Big boat and caravan in the other garage. If I was one of those such persons, I would not shop around for prices as much as I do now. I guess than that would put me into one of those categories of ripping people off for there lavish lifestyles.

Boy have I opened up a can of worms here, I'm probably going to get some flak now.

[wayno]

i dont think you can trust the RRP for any high street or mall shops... they are guaranted a high volume of customer,s yes their overheads are high but they do get away with charging a lot more, we all know places where you go you can expect high prices by default

[photohiker]

I let someone else serve those with there big huge home overlooking the harbour with there flash cars in the garage and there Big boat and caravan in the other garage. If I was one of those such persons, I would not shop around for prices as much as I do now.

Ask your butcher about that, he may not agree with you.

I'm happy to buy locally, but not by paying through the teeth, and like Phillip a lot of stuff in my kit just simply isn't available here.

Things are slowly improving though. When I bought my WM sleeping bag a few years ago, the savings of importing vs buying from Paddy's were huge. Today, I'd probably go to Paddy's

[wayno]

nz is even worse than aus for choice... quite a few overseeas brands you can get in aus you can't get here. hence me going to mainpeak,
i believe the distributor for nz is in aus but doesnt bother distributing it here.
then you've got brands like rab, they have an nz distributor but you wouldnt know it, i had to search online and found it was only in three ski shops in the whole country in a very limited range and they werent interested in ordering in so you could try the item. I know bivouac werent interested in stocking their product, even though bivouac dont do any air permeable waterproof shells and rab specialise in them....
their sales mgr told me something like they didnt need it in their range... i got the impression they were wary of event. he knew of manufacturing issues in hte past and wasnt convinced on the durability of the product..
so how many other brands are retailers turning up their nose at?
so in nz you are more likely to have to order something without being able to get a hands on look at it, and you're having to research it more. since you usually dont know anyone who uses the gear you can't get where you live.... and yup i've been stung getting gear that wasnt what i expected or was over hyped. or wasnt the best fit despite checking the dimensions, i'd say if someone is going to completely kit themselves out from online they should instead take a trip overseas if they could afford it to avoid too many expensive mistakes...
i dont think people should be asked by online stores to review gear until they've had it a few months.... rather than straight away when they still think the gear is going to be every dream come true.....
when i got my last jacket from online, the hood was a bit tight but i just told myself it wasnt that bad until finally it drove me round the twist so much i replaced it... i checked reviews for it, but i didnt see any saying the hood was small. but i've read general comments that american jackets especially non hood compatible ones are more likely to be on the small side... i saw the jacket half price and that clinched it for me, but rainshells are pretty important , i shoudlnt have let the sale influence my decisions, i did have some reservations looking at photos and i should have taken notice of those reservations.... i'd never had a storm shell jacket with such a small hood. but now i have, its something i research better... lesson learned...
in the end though i have saved hundreds ordering online and most gear has worked out, i've gotten gear i couldnt have goten otherwise other than travelling overseas... and it's switched me on to brands i woudnt have experienced otherwise and allowed me to form my own opinions of those brands irrespective of mainstream opinion...

[wayno]

i wont bore you with the latest details, suffice to say doesnt surprise me mail services are going bust and couriers are thriving..... my package is bouncing around auckland somewhere nzpost cannot tell me where despite having a tracking no..